The Catholic Church should mark the canonization of Edith Stein, an Orthodox Jew-turned-nun who died at Auschwitz, with a full admission of wrongs it did Jews in the Holocaust, the father of a girl saved by a miracle credited to Stein urged Saturday.
The father, mother and 11 siblings of 14-year-old Teresia Benedicta McCarthy of Brockton, Mass., came to Rome to see Pope John Paul II elevate Stein to sainthood today.Benedicta's father also hopes to see the pope initiate a period of contrition - explicit remorse by all Christians for the Holocaust.
"A generalized `I'm sorry' is not the way the Catholic Church operates forgiveness," said the Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy.
Long an admirer of Stein, he said, "The last thing she would want . . . would be that the canonization somehow was part of a means to hide the atrocities of Christians in relation to Jewish people during the Second World War."
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and a large contingent from Stein's family also are expected to attend the ceremony.
The canonization has sparked debate between Catholics and Jews. Some Jewish leaders say Stein - like 6 million others in the Holocaust - died because she was a Jew and see the church as singling out and laying claim to her martyrdom.
For their part, church leaders have expressed hope that the canonization would boost dialogue and reconciliation between Catholics and Jews - something that has been a tenet of John Paul's papacy.
In March, the Vatican came out with a long-awaited statement of regret that Catholics did not say and do more to stop Nazi persecution of Jews. Some Jewish leaders were disappointed, wanting an outright apology and a condemnation of Pope Pius XII for not doing more against the Nazis.
Stein, born into an Orthodox Jewish German family on Yom Kippur in 1891, was an atheist before she converted to Catholicism. She became a nun in 1922; 20 years later, the Nazis shipped her and fellow converts in Holland to Auschwitz to punish the nation's bishops for speaking out against Adolf Hitler. She died at Auschwitz on Aug. 9, 1942.
In naming her a saint, the church said she interceded almost a half-century after her death to save Benedicta's life.
At 21/2, the girl swallowed an overdose of Tylenol. She suffered such severe liver damage that she was put on a priority list for a transplant.
Then, overnight, Benedicta got better. Her liver was fine. Benedicta's doctor wrote on her chart, "'This child has made a miraculous recovery. Report to follow,' " recalled her mother, Mary McCarthy.